The present invention relates to security labels and in particular, to a product label employing a security element, such as a security thread, for verifying the authenticity of an item, such as a consumer product.
Counterfeiting of consumer products has become an increasing concern, particularly where the products or goods have a significant value or where the products may cause injury to humans if counterfeited, such as foods and medicines. Counterfeiters often duplicate labels used on food products, such as baby food, and other high priced commodities, such as liquor. The duplicate labels are then applied to tampered or contaminated products, or products of substantially less quality, and are then xe2x80x9cpassed offxe2x80x9d as the higher priced, original product. The counterfeiting of product labels and xe2x80x9cpassing offxe2x80x9d of goods is a common problem with many labeled products including, but not limited to, food and liquor products, beauty products, such as perfume, computer hardware and software products, and replacement parts for machinery and automobiles.
Some security labels have attempted to prevent tampering and/or counterfeiting, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,511,616, 5,042,842 and 5,358,261. However, such prior art security labels, which use watermarks and other security indicia, have failed to adequately prevent counterfeiting. Many of these security features used in prior art security labels are easily duplicated by the counterfeiter and reproduced on the label. Some of these prior art security labels also cannot be made without substantial changes to the existing label making process.
Accordingly, a need exists for a security label having a security element, such as a security thread, that authenticates the security label and the product and is not easily duplicated or reproduced by counterfeiters. What is also needed is a method of making such a security label that can easily be incorporated into the existing label-making process.
The present invention features a security label for use on or in association with an item, to provide verification of the authenticity of the item, and a method of making such a security label. In one embodiment, the security label includes a base layer having opposing outer and inner surfaces, an adhesive layer disposed on at least a portion of the inner surface of the base layer, for adhering the security label to the item, and at least one security element disposed proximate to at least one layer in the security label, for verifying the authenticity of the security label and the item.
Preferably the security element(s) is: laminated to the outer surface of the base layer; at least partially embedded in the base layer; laminated between the base layer and the adhesive layer; and/or affixed to the surface of the adhesive layer used to adhere the security label to the item.
The security element(s) preferably includes a security thread having a substantially narrow construction. One type of security element includes a visually verifiable security element for providing visual authentication. For example, the security element may comprise a substrate having verification indicia formed on at least one surface thereof, so that the verification indicia are visible from at least one side of the security label.
Another type of security element includes a machine-detectable and optionally, machine-readable security element. For example, the machine-detectable security element can include one or more machine-detectable regions (e.g., metal or magnetic regions), while the machine-detectable/machine-readable security element can include encoded (e.g., conductive) regions and non-encoded (e.g., non-conductive) regions, for encoding machine-readable verification data.
The preferred embodiment of the security label further includes at least one release layer, for covering and protecting the adhesive layer prior to adhering the label to the item. The security label is also preferably used as a primary label on items such as consumer products and can also include indicia disposed on an outer surface of the base layer, representing information about the item.
The method of making a security label according to the present invention comprises the acts of: providing a base layer having opposing outer and inner surfaces; providing an adhesive layer on at least a portion of the inner surface of the base layer; and providing at least one security element proximate to at least one layer of the security label. Preferably, the act of providing the security element(s) includes: laminating the security element(s) to the outer surface of the base layer; at least partially embedding the security element(s) in the base layer; laminating the security element(s) between the base layer and the adhesive layer; and/or affixing the security element(s) to the surface of the adhesive layer used to adhere the security label to an item.
The act of providing the security element(s) preferably includes providing one or more security threads having a substantially narrow construction. In one example, the act of providing the security element(s) includes forming verification indicia on at least one surface of the security element. Preferably, the method further includes the act of applying a release layer over the surface of the adhesive layer used to adhere the security label to an item.